Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade

Charles (The Paris Library) bases her new historical novel on the true story of Jessie “Kit” Carson, who joined the American Committee for Devastated France (Le Commité américain pour les regions dévastées de France, or CARD) during World War I. Through Kit’s story, Charles highlights the efforts of a courageous group of American women working on the wars front lines in France and providing emergency relief to civilians in the devastated areas. Kit, a children’s librarian, has taken a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to come to France to organize and run a library near the front lines that she hopes will bring the region’s children joy through books. Kit goes on to turn ambulances into bookmobiles, train those who would be the first French women to become librarians, and form lifelong friendships while also overcoming past insecurities, all against the backdrop of an impending German offensive. Told from the alternating perspectives of Kit and Wendy Peterson, a writer and NYPL employee researching the CARD organization in the 1980s, the novel brings to light the work of librarians whose valiant efforts helped French citizens during the war.